Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Les Misérables – A review

Victor Hugo’s classic novel Les Misérables has
been made into numerous theater and film productions.The current film, starring Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean
appears to be the most realistic rendition.What most reviewers fail to mention is how this story
continues to be a profound critique of the world we live in today.In order to see this relevancy we need
to take a look at the story.

The
story

As a child Jean Valjean saw his sister’s
child starving to death in France during the early years of the 19th
century. This prompted Valjean to
steal a loaf of bread. The police
arrested Valjean and he served 19 years in prison. Five of those years were for stealing the bread and 14 years
were added on to that sentence for several escape attempts. The authorities released Valjean on
parole, but he needed to violate that parole in order to find employment.

After several years Valjean changed his
name, became the owner of a factory, and the Mayor of the town where he
lived. A police inspector named
Javert discovered Valjean’s true identity and dedicated himself to apprehending
the escaped convict.

In the meantime, a woman named Fantine,
who worked in Valjean’s factory, hid the fact that she was supporting a child
that was born out of wedlock. When
her co-workers discovered Fantine’s secret, they pressured a foreman to fire
the unwed mother.

Fantine then did whatever she could to
continue supporting her daughter Cosette, but eventually died because of the
life she needed to live. At this
point, Valjean cares for Cosette as if she were his daughter.

In the midst of this story the French
Revolution erupts. Young people
begin to see how a completely new political system was necessary and they
organized to overthrow the military.
In the process, the revolutionaries arrested Police Inspector Jabert and
sentence him to death.

Valjean was given the task of executing
Jabert, but he has mercy on his nemesis and allows Jabert to escape. This act transforms Jabert and he
realizes that his core values of police enforcement were all wrong and he
commits suicide. Jabert says that
Valjean’s act of mercy, in effect, killed the essence of who he was.

Today’s
reality

As of the year 2011 there were 50.1
million people living in the United States who are food insecure or hungry. Many states have a three-strikes and
you’re out law that mandates sentences of 25 years to life for those who are
convicted of three thefts. Most of
the prison population consists of people convicted of drug related offences
that do not necessarily harm anyone but the user. These are some of the reasons why the United States has more
prisoners, per capita, than any other nation in the world.

During the last sixty years the United
States government has made it a practice of going to war against nations that
are some of the poorest in the world.
Many of the residents of these nations such as Korea, Vietnam, and
Afghanistan experience the same kind of poverty as we see on the pages of
Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.
Millions of people in those nations have perished because of these wars.

The government, the media, as well as
corporations encourage working people to blame our problems on other workers
who do not measure up to corporate standards. Along these lines, we see the media searching for
individuals on public assistance who manage to receive more money than the
horrendously meager allotments they receive. This same media has no serious problem with the trillions of dollars allocated to the
owners of banks that are “too big to fail.”

Unlike Police Inspector Jabert, the
political officials in the United States haven’t come to the realization that
their core values are one big lie.
No, Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton actually believe that enriching
the affluent will, in some way, benefits the millions of people who will go to
be hungry this evening. They also
believe that the best way to aid people in some of the poorest nations in the
world is to kill them.

Victor Hugo understood that the answer
to the problems of 19th century France could not be solved by
appealing to the political officials of that day. No, things reached the point where the people took to the
streets and attempted to organize a movement to solve the problems of their
day.

Given the enormity of the disparity of
wealth in the world, Victor Hugo’s ideas appear to be just as relevant today as
they were over one hundred years ago.

About Me

I am the author of the novel "Looking Back From 2101." My novel imagines a future world where poverty and discrimination are no longer a part of the human condition. My blog contains articles and poems that I've written over the years. Many of my poems are biographies of historical figures who I have found to be inspiring.